Contemporary issues in business (Primark) Essay

Contemporary issues in business (Primark) - Essay Example Based on the success rate of the company, it has become apparent that more stores are needed to be added to the chain for improving its value. The company caters to the customers belonging from diverse age groups (Primark Stores Limited, 2013). It targets those consumers who are fashion conscious and want proper value in return for their money. The company caters to the market by way of fulfilment of needs of the people by supplying both menswear and ladies-wear. In addition, it also aims to meet the requirement of the market by way of supplying other products that range from accessories & hosiery, children’s wear and footwear among others. The company is said to attain a sales target of ?3.5billion in the year 2012 which is quite impressive (Northern and Shell Media Publications, 2013). The company has a very effective supply chain that brings together different manufacturing units in India, Turkey, and Bangladesh, China and other countries, having a number of retail outlets in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and in other parts of Europe (The Times Newspaper Limited and  ©MBA Publishing Ltd, 2010; Dobson, 2004). In relation to the ethical and corporate social responsibility, the company acts in a much diversified manner. It focuses upon delivering quality products at cheap prices and at the same time retaining the customers by way of creating value for the goods which are manufactured. Identification of the CSR responsibilities of Primark is considered to be the main theme of the paper. Additionally, the paper also aims to highlight various reasons for which the company focuses upon developing and third world countries in relation to sourcing of its products. A Snapshot of Primark Store Source: (The Times Newspaper Limited and  ©MBA Publishing Ltd, 2010) 2.0 Reasons for Sourcing From Developing Countries The primary reason for sourcing from developing countries is to source the products in an efficient manner. Moreover, the company in order to improve the manufacturing process the company opted for developing countries. Another reason was to utilise the local fabrics for producing the products. The other reason for sourcing was to create a strong focus on the current product trends (Choi, 2012). 2.1 Growth Rate It would enable to provide high opportunity of growth to the developing nations. It would allow the company to achieve the high rates of growth because it will get to expand its business channels. Primark’s business expansion comes from fulfilling the needs of the customers along with continuing to expand its markets in the selected regions. The company is able to implement very effective marketing strategies as it is primarily laying its focus upon the developing countries. These factors can prove to be concurrent in relation to the aspects related to growth (Grose, 2011).Therefore, the company planned to source its products from developing countries to attain high rate of growth through sourcing the products from developing nations (Grose, 2011). 2.2 Competitive Advantage This would lead to growth of an ideal company

My Vision for holistic nutrition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

My Vision for holistic nutrition - Essay Example While holistic nutrition does not make any claims that a certain food, or a vitamin or mineral contained therein, will cure any degenerative disease, for instance cancer, adequately giving the body what it needs will help the body to heal itself. In holistic nutrition every person is viewed as an individual with different nutritional needs. The Holistic community believes that many variables play a role in establishing what may be a normal nutritional requirement, resulting in a â€Å"tailored† nutritional chart for individuals based on their needs. In contrast, Allopathic medicine looks at the population as a whole; it determines the norm based on an average requirement and applies that calculation to the individual, regardless of biochemical, environmental and physical differences. Holistic nutrition, as mentioned earlier, looks at the person as a whole, keeping the differences in body systems (neurological, structural, immune, reproductive, etc.) in view, and helps deal with the various challenges facing the body for optimal nutritional functionality. For example, instead of approaching depression, skeletal pain, and fatigue as three separate issues, thus calling for three separate prescriptions, a holistic nutriti onist will look at these three different weaknesses on the whole: what do they have in common and what systemic condition could be causing it. Such an approach treats the systems of the body as being interconnected and seeks to improve the health of the person on the whole. Holistic nutrition teaches that food is the best medicine. Dietary intake and supplements are important considerations when seeking to prevent illnesses or to strengthen a body already in crisis. Prescriptions medication may quiet or silence the symptoms of illness, but may not be able to identify and correct the root cause of the illness, which, in turn, will continue to weaken the body. A holistic

Management of Organizational Performance: Literature Review

Management of Organizational Performance: Literature Review Many broad descriptions of management of performance can be found when one goes through the bulk of management materials available in books, journals and internet. Michael Armstrong 2000 plainly describes management of performance as a means of getting better results from a whole organization, or teams and individuals within ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦within an agreed framework of planned goals. Whereas Armstrongs description does not exactly introduce a novel definition in management literature, it captures the extensiveness of the field of appraisal. This field is full of complexities in regards to elucidating the exact scale of practices and mechanisms involved in performance appraisal. Armstrongs definition sets us on an excellent path when it comes to understanding these complexities. Donna Mitchell in her book Performance Management is more forthcoming in her definition and attempts to cover more ground in the management literature. She adds another dimension to the definition by first i ncluding performance measurement in her attempts to exhaustively describe management of performance. She describes performance measurement as the process of assessing progress towards achieving predetermined goals (Mitchell, 2007). She goes ahead to describe management of performance as, building on that process adding, the relevant communication and action on the progress achieved against these predetermined goals (Mitchell, 2007). On top of incorporating the aspect of measurement of performance in management, it is notable to appreciate that management of performance is fundamentally about management of people. It is basically an attempt to comprehend the manner in which people in an organization work, both individually and with others. Aspects like supervision, decision making, inclusive employee involvement, motivation and promotion of technological innovations among workers are equally crucial in the development of the organization. Mitchells definition is an improvement from Armstrongs description and more elaborative. It can be observed from the two writers that the field of management is unmistakably composed of several disciplines. Diverse modalities for organizational evaluation are existent and thus various operational methods have been formulated to independently appraise an organizations development. Financial department policies that specifically deal with accounting are mostly employed in evaluati ng and controlling the fiscal robustness of organizations. The technical operations department evaluation policies are inherently concerned with enhancing the logistical fluidity of activities and functions in the various departments. The human resource department on its part is largely specialized in enhancing output of personnel. These three offer an insight into the compound realm of management of organizational performance. The discipline of management that is closely related with the appraisal of organizational performance is the human resources. Nevertheless, other departments have evaluation score cards that respective managers use to review in assessing employee outputs and efficiency. Elaine Pulakos, in Performance Management: A New Approach for Driving Business Results, underscores the significance of management of organization performance being tactical, united, geared towards enhancement of performance and enforced enactment of positive development concepts. But this wide and ambiguous definition of management of organizational performance makes it an increasingly intricate undertaking. The specific appraisal component that is clearly implicit of the progression of performance evaluation is definitely the performance scorecard Rampersad posits that the Balanced Scorecard, as a tool of measurement has evolved into the ultimate unit pointer of progression or regression. He divides the measurement tool into two components; the Personal Balanced Scorecard or PBSC and the Organizational Balanced Scorecard (OBSC) (Rampersad, 2003). The former is for individual employees to evaluate themselves, while the latter is for entire organization to gauge its collective progression. Whereas different literatures on management will present divergentthough synonymousdescriptions of management of organizational performance, most of them are homogeneous in their acknowledgement of the importance of the practice. To formulate a strategy, a business or organization needs sufficient data that indicate its current status. The current status of the organization will be determined only by a review of the organizations performance. The performance management similarly aids in management of the process of implementing the conceptualized strategies. In the process of managing the formulated strategies, the scorecard data will caution against making assumptions. In the absence of a scorecard, an organization can easily make assumptions about its position and use the hypothetical data to make skewed and erratic projections about the future. Balanced Scorecards for the individuals and the organization are the only sure means of checking the development or degeneration direction of firm (Thorpe Holloway, 2008). The management of organizational performance can help a company ascertain that it is realizing minimum allowable standards that are necessary for continued existence. These could be standards pertaining to environmental safety or legal provisions. Management of appraisals of the company also communicates a clear message of expectation to the employees. As such, employees are conscious of not only their duties and responsibilities, but of performance standards the employers expect them to deliver. Stakeholders are also informed of the companys sense of direction; such stakeholders include current and prospective shareholders, concerned government authorities and clients or customers. Management of organization performance can be a system for the acknowledgement and appreciation of the hard work and outstanding behavior of excellent employees. Appreciating and rewarding excellent employee behavior can be an incentive or a source of motivation for other employees to improve on their del ivery and output. Clear as the benefits of management are, there exist two performance management precepts. The first is the tactical management of performance and the other is conservative management system. The tactical system which is purely strategic is also intrinsically reactionary and depends on market or environment settings and conditions. The tactical management system is triggered whenever there are drastic changes in the organizational surroundings and the business needs to readjust its activities in the wake of environmental changes. The conservative performance management system on the contrary is a continuous system that is carried out at predetermined regular intervals to self-regulate the firm. The regulation could be a quarterly, bi-annual or yearly process, planned to coincide with specific but organization-wide release of statements, for example production output statements, fiscal position reports or profit announcements (Carton Hofer, 2006). Other than communicating the position of the firm to stakeholders, the regular management of organizational performance is critical in inspiring and rewarding exceptional employee behaviors. While in the conventional logic the evaluation of employee performance and the reward schemes have been associated with release of firms fiscal reports, some organizations are using the Personal Balanced Scorecard to negotiate salary, wages and compensation for their employees. Niven, 2006 is a big critic of the system that seeks to use appraisal reports in assigning compensation packages for its employees. Niven argues that appraisal results are efficient only if the rewards for good behavior are gifts that supplement an employees pay, not if the result is used to calculate and determine the compensation package. Mohan Nair disputes Nivens argument in his book, Essentials of balanced scorecard. Mohan is of the view that a scorecard is the surest means of keeping employees in check all year round . He, Mohan, posits that an organization has no business providing attractive compensation packages to non-performing employees as the main goal of an organization is to generate profits. Niven is critical of using scorecards to determine compensation packages because they create rivalries among employees within departments and they are also unsustainable. Niven wants us to imagine a scenario where the performance of an employee keeps fluctuating on monthly basis. If an employee is outstanding on the first month, average on the second and grossly underproductive on the third, does the management keep on updating the compensation package for every of those months and for every single employee in the organization? Matthew Kammerer explores deeper into the pros and cons of balanced scorecards as were developed by the pair of Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton. He notes that while Kaplan and Norton were innovative in formulating a system for evaluating performances, he hypothesizes that anomalous employee behavior is most likely to be observed in the long haul. This system will eventually water down on the worth of tactical performance management as it will not be entirely impartial to all employees. Research done by Michael Hammer on the same issue backs up Kammerers hypothesis, and points out to the prejudicial nature of scorecards on junior employees. The reward scheme is done by senior organization employees and these superiors will assign themselves favorable points and pocket the bulk of the rewards. Many departmental managers have raised complaints regarding the partiality of performance rewards scheme, and particularly criticized the criteria employed to settle on rewards. The human resource department is at the centre of this reward scheme and is equally burdened by the tenets to be used in rationally allocating rewards (Hammer, 2007). The big question therefore is, what aspects need to be managed when evaluating the performance of the organization? The quandary of assessing organizational performance is such a demanding undertaking that management experts and observers can only speculate on the best ways forward. Fiscal strategies are conventionally regarded as the easily usable schemes in many firms. With the turn of the millennia however, organizations have become more complex with multifaceted dimensions that need cannot be evaluated by fiscal analysis alone. Paolo Taticchi reckons in the International journal of Productivity and Performance Management that fiscal analysis, by use of management accounting, is an incomplete tool as a comprehensive organizational performance indicator. Taticchi notes that the use of management bookkeeping information is only enough when reviewing inflows and outflows. The inadequacies of purely financial appraisal systems in performance review have spawned a shift from cost analysis to encompass a wide range of issues such as a review of the firms goals. Observers in the appraisal of performance have debated and proposed ways in which organizations can formulate proper assessment systems. From the bulk of management literature available on performance measurement, comprehensive review outlines have the aim of delineating performance in a manner that echoes strategic organization goals (Taticchi, 2010). These outlines possess fundamental attributes that assist in pinpointing the apposite series of standards against which performance is sustainably assessed and managed. The literature covered in Thorpe and Holloway (2008), and Taticchi (2009) highlight the reality that a series of review measures employed by a firm must depict a crystal representation of the firm. These measures ought to echo the fiscal as well as the non-fiscal strategies; the internal and environmental attributes; and the competence and efficiency measures. The generated outline of quantifiable measures must also generate a clear indication of the firms performance. Case in point, the minimalism and perceptive basis of the Organizational Balanced Scorecard is regarded as its most resourceful feature, as it is simple and readily grasped (Fakhri, Menacere Pegum, 2011). Outlines need to show the necessity for a firm to employ a series of measures that are multifaceted in dimensions. All areas of organizational performance must be measurable to reflect development or regression in the outline. The sight of a chief executive officer handling a mass of data that has not been filtered into meaningful information is not so uncommon. Such heaps of data does not present any meaning and insightful account of the performance of individual and departmental units in the organization. To eliminate the occurrence of a scenario where an executive reads heaps of data that bears no informative insight, the department of quality management has to come into action. Some reputable methodologies can be used by the quality management department to cover the apparent inadequacies of balanced scoreboards for example the Demming Cycle (Balanced Scoreboard Institute). Developed by Edward Deming in the mid last century, he held that business processes ought to be scrutinized and gauged to make out the sources of discrepancies which result in manufactured goods digressing from clients specifications. The Demming Cycle represents just one of the many assessment tools that are not only geared towards fiscal analysis but cover other crucial organizational issues. The Demming Cycle is simple; place the undertakings and activities of the firm in an incessant feedback loop so that supervisors can make out and alter the activities that need upgrading. To demonstrate the cycle, he used the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle to keep performance management in continuous check (Averson, 1998). Under the Plan, the management or whoever is concerned with the review of performance management-devises and revises the organization processes and the associated components (activities) to guarantee continuous development or improvement in results. The Do part of the cycle is concerned with the carrying out of the Plan, and the gauging of processes performance. The Check section is meant for assessment of products measurements, and the identification of faults. The results obtained from the Check section are forwarded to the organs of decision making. Finally, the Act part is mainly an action phase. Changes are made at this stage in case faults have been detected in the system. Tools for quality assessment managers are not few. There is the OODA loop which is an acronym for Observe, Orient Decide and Act that is used as a precept for strategic operations in the organization. The OODA loop appreciates the reality that the process of decision making is continuous cycle that needs regulated periods of observing and acting indefinitely. Similar to the Demming cycle, it is a deterrence mechanism that requires communication in the organizational structure. The six sigma is another management strategy, initially a project of Motorola, which is geared to identifying defects and eliminating them before they impact on the performance of the firm. It incorporates statistical quality management systems. Six sigma has its own share of debatable controversies and has been likened to the balanced scorecard for its lack of creativity by a host of management literatures. Research into the sigma six effects on business quality has revealed that an excess of 90 percent of fir ms that implemented the quality assessment programs recorded a loss in fortune (Morris, 2006). Others quality assessment tools include COBIT or Control Objectives for Information and related Technology that is specifically used in the information technology organizations and is a creation of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. AIDA an abbreviation for Attention Interest Desire Action is another tool used in the marketing department to appraise marketing performances (Morris, 2006). All the management literature reviewed in this paper provides resourceful information in managing the performances of an organization. The literatures clearly indicate that for an organization to unlock its potential it must deal with right quality management tools and they should be applied appropriately to realize their potential. Performance management ought to be cross-sectional and not only target a particular section of the workforce. The exact performances that are being appraised ought to be reflected against expectations, the requisite requirements for outstanding performance and the qualities the clients are looking for. Performance must also be managed and appraised against feasible strategies and goals. A cross-sectional link between the performances of employees in hierarchical organizations should be explicitly assessed, so that the elimination of any possible conflicts in evaluation of employees is carried out. Conflicts are clear stumbling blocks in organizational eva luation. Such conflicts in the form of organizational politics need to be deracinated to ensure that departments with functional dependencies correlate with each other harmoniously. Organizations must center their performance appraisals systems towards communicating insight to employees, and not just generating raw data on employee productivity. If quality assessment tools are effective and the organization is realizing its objectives without subjecting employees to data about their performance, a positive culture of self drive is calculated amongst employees. On the contrary, if an organization is performing well and the company keeps on generating data for the purpose of rating employees, it creates a rivalry among departments and employees. This consequently results in some employees developing dysfunctional behaviors, either due to paranoia or insecurity over their jobs (Falcone Sachs, 2007). Considerable collective organizational effort must be spared to ensure the gradual development of apposite traditions in the firm that promote engagement of the firms employees in the processes and objectives of the company. Such a tradition should cultivate the feeling of appreciation among the employees so that employees enjoy their work. In brief, organization performance management will first encompass aspects such as planning of employee roles and demarcation of specific expextations from employees. Second, it involves an incessant process of performance supervision by use of quality assessment tools. Third, it encompasses the development of employees aptitude and competence to execute their roles. Fourth, it involves the intermittent positive appraisal of performance of individuals and departments. Finally, it covers the sensitive issue of rewarding employees who are exhibiting excellent organizational behavior and performance. Why i decided to go to college? Why i decided to go to college? When I think about college I think about a lot of studying and not enough time for myself. But I know that when I graduate college I will have many opportunities available. Going to college has affected my life in many ways, but in the end it will all pay off. I then decided that I wanted to go to college because I want a better future. After I graduated high school, I never thought about college. The reason I never thought about college was because, my parents didnt have that much money to support me through college. My parents wanted a better future for me, so that I can take care of myself. I then decided to go to Hennepin Technical College because they offered me financial aid. If it wasnt for financial aid, I wouldnt even think about going to college. I have a total to five in my family, and my father is the only one working. Financial aid helped me out a lot because, I didnt have to pay for anything. They helped me out with my tuition and my books. But sometimes my tuition don t always cover all of my cost in college. That made me happy because, I know that my parents didnt have to worry about paying for my tuition. Another reason I decided to go to college is because, it is closer to home. I wouldnt want to be making a long drive home from college. I also decide to go to Hennepin Tech because, of the time. They have morning, afternoon, and evening classes. I am a evening person. I concentrate better in the evening than 7:00AM. When I wake up that early, I feel like I cant concentrate. So for my classes, I have mostly all evening classes and one morning class. I try my very best to stay focused, but that was the only time they have available for morning class. When I started college, I thought that it wouldnt be so hard, but I was wrong. Not only do I have to study hard, but I dont have enough time for myself. I am going to college to become a dental assistant. In my dental class I have an exam every time I go to that class. I also have papers due for my other class the same time I have to study for my dental exam. It is so frustrating, because I dont know which one to do first, and I also become stressed out. But I end up doing well on my papers and on my exams. With all that studying and exams I have, I cant get a job, because I have so much work to do at college, I dont think that I can keep up with a job. My parents are great, they never tell me to get a job, because they know that I have to much papers and exams at the top of my head. They always tell me to focus on my studies and dont worry about a job, that they will support me. That made it less stressful knowing that I dont have to worry about getting a job. College has affect my life in many ways. I am the first one in my family to attend college, which means my parents are very proud that I decided to go. Since I am the first to attend college, I want to show my two brothers that they can do it, if I can. College has change my way of thinking. I know that when I graduate college, I will have a brighter future with many job opportunities available.

Wilderness and Adventure Education Essay -- Education

There are two different parts of the Wilderness Sports and Adventure Education model. The Wilderness sports part of it includes the students participating in various activities such as canoeing, rock climbing and hiking. They are not traditional sports because the athletic ability of the student is not as important as it would be in traditional physical education activity. For example, a child may not be able to kick a soccer ball very well or throw a softball accurately but they would be able to hike up a mountain. Not all schools are able to do these activities because they are lacking the recourses or money. However all schools can participate the in the Adventure Education part of the model. The reason being is because they don’t need the equipment to go canoeing or the environment to have the trails to go hiking. All the teacher needs to participate in Adventure education is a few obstacles to help students with different skills and the student’s cooperation. The Wilderness Sports teaching model is unique from other teaching models. Not every school has the resources or the time in the curriculum to provide students with the opportunity to perform the Wilderness Sports such as cycling, hiking or rock climbing. This gives the chance for the school to come up with extra-curricular activities for the students that otherwise wouldn’t be able to do during the school day. A great extra-curricular activity would be mountain biking. Biking is a great way to stay in shape and go for an adventure at the same time. It also provides bonding time with the teacher and the student which is very important. â€Å"We began taking rides together. The students would show me new trails, and I would show them the ones I was familiar with. The bike rid... ...o it is only done by people who want to participate so they already have something in common. In Adventure Education the team has to work together so the students can make friends that way. This is a teaching model that all physical education teachers should try to incorporate into the curriculum. Works Cited Darst, Paul W., and Robert P. Pangrazi. Dynamic Physical Education for Secondary School Students. San Francisco: Pearson Education, 2002 McCracken, Bane. It's Not Just Gym Anymore Teaching Secondary School Students How to Be Active for Life. Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2001 Cummiskey, Matthew. "The New PE Homepage." The New PE Homepage. West Chester University. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. . "Welcome to Project Adventure, Leaders In Adventure and Experience-based Learning." Project Adventure. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. .

Telecom Application Map (Etom, Release 3.1)

These process elements can then be positioned within a model to show organizational, functional and other relationships, and can be combined within process flows that trace activity paths through the business. The eTOM can serve as the blueprint for standardizing and categorizing business activities (or process elements) that will help set direction and the starting point for development and integration of Business and Operations Support Systems (BSS and OSS respectively). An important additional application for eTOM is that it helps to support and guide work by TM Forum members and others to develop NGOSS solutions. For service providers, it provides a Telco industry-standard reference point, when considering internal process reengineering needs, partnerships, alliances, and general working agreements with other providers.For suppliers, the eTOM framework outlines potential boundaries of process solutions, and the required functions, inputs, and outputs that must be supported by pro cess solutions. This document consists of: An introduction to the role of the eTOM Business Process Framework. An overview of the eTOM Business Process Framework, from both Intra-Enterprise and Inter-Enterprise viewpoints, that sets out the main structural elements and approach. The implications and impact of ebusiness for service providers and their business relationships, and how eTOM supports them.  A description of extensions to eTOM for Business to Business Interactions. Several Annexes and Appendices, including terminology and glossary. An Addendum (Addendum D) describing the Service Provider nterprise processes and sub-processes in a form that is top down, customer-centric, and end-to-end focused. Process decompositions are provided for all processes from the highest conceptual view of the framework to the working level of the eTOM, and many selected lower level decompositions in the framework are also included. An Addendum (Addendum F) describing selected process flows at several levels of view and detail that provides end-to-end insight into the application of eTOM. A separate Application Note (GB921L) that shows how eTOM can be used to model the ITIL processes. ?TeleManagement Forum 2002 GB921v3. 5 Draft 4 Page 2 eTOM Business Process FrameworkAnother Application Note (GB921B, currently under development) outlining implications and impact of ebusiness for service providers and their business relationships, and how eTOM supports them, including a description of handling of Business to Business Interactions by eTOM. Note: Annexes and Appendices both allow material to be removed from the â€Å"in-line† flow of the document main body, so that the reader does not become embedded in too much detail as they read. However, they have a different status within a document. Annexes contain normative material, i. e. they have equivalent status to the material within the main body of the document, while Appendices are non-normative, i. e. they contain mat erial included for information or general guidance but which does not represent formal agreement and requirements for users of the document.Addenda have a similar status to Annexes, but are presented as a separate document that is an adjunct to the main document. This is typically because otherwise a single document would become cumbersome due to its size. Thus, a document body, together with its Annexes and Addenda (and their Annexes, if any), represents the normative material presented, while any Appendices in the main document or its Addenda represent non-normative material, included for information only. Application Notes are a specific document type, used to provide insight into how a specification or other agreed artifact is used in a particular context or area of application. They are non-normative as they provide information and guidance only within the area concerned.The basic operations framework continues to be stable even as the Information and Communications Services in dustry continues to change, largely because, like the TM Forum’s previous Telecom Operations Map (TOM), the eTOM Business Process Framework: Uses a high level and generic approach Reflects a broad range of operations and enterprise process model views Reflects the way service providers run and are architecting their businesses eTOM is already being widely used eTOM is accepted as the Telco industry standard by Service Providers, Vendors, Integrators and Consultants. The eTOM significantly enhances the TOM, the previous ‘de facto’ standard for Service Provider operations processes for the industry. eTOM has become the enterprise process, ebusiness enabled, ‘de facto’ standard for the Information and Communications Services industry processes. For those familiar with the TOM, it may be helpful to refer to the prior release of this document (GB921 v3. 0) that includes appendices covering TOM to eTOM Chapter Comparison, and TOM To eTOM Process Name Chang es. GB921v3. 6 ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 3 Relationship to Standardization ActivitiesMuch of the management infrastructures upon which systems will be built are expected to be based on standard interfaces. Relating business needs to available, or necessary, standards is a primary goal of the TM Forum in promoting a standardsbased approach to information and communications services management. Where applicable, the TM Forum uses industry standards in its work to promote the acceptance of standards and to minimize redundant work. People active in management standardization (in the broadest sense) will find the eTOM useful in setting a top down, enterprise-level, customer-centric context of how management specifications need to work together.TM Forum uses existing standards as much as possible. As a result of implementation experience through Catalyst projects, TM Forum provides feedback to appropriate standards bodies. NGOSS and eTOM NGOSS is the TM Forum’s New Generation Operations Systems and Software program, which delivers a toolkit to guide the definition, development, procurement and deployment of OSS/BSS solutions while also defining a strategic direction for a more standardized OSS marketplace. NGOSS uses a common business process map, systems descriptions, and information models and couples them with pre-defined integration interfaces, architectural principles and compliance criteria.NGOSS’s end-to-end approach enables service providers to redesign their key business processes in line with industry best practices while allowing suppliers to cost-effectively develop OSS software that can easily fit into a service provider’s IT environment. ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 4 eTOM Business Process Framework S S A y A n ysstte na em m a D ly D e lyssiis ss essi s & ig n & g n NGOSS Supporting Tools s es ap s in s M Bu ces M) O o Pr (eT Co nt ra Ne c ut Tec t In ra h te l A no rf rc log ac hi y e & te ct ur e In S f h Da orm are ta at d i (S Mo on ID de & ) l So An Souu An l l t to ii aa n De lyys on De l sis is& ssg iig & nnPr B Pr u oo Bus cc sin ee ssss ine e & & A sss De An s De naa ssg lyy iig l ss nn iss i Co m p Te lia st nce s ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 Figure P. 1: TM Forum NGOSS Framework Figure P. 1 shows the NGOSS Framework, and the vital role of eTOM within this. eTOM provides the Business Process Map for NGOSS. Moving around the NGOSS â€Å"wheel†, eTOM feeds requirements to the Information Model and thence to the Integration Framework and Compliance Criteria. More information on NGOSS is available through the TM Forum website www. tmforum. org GB921v3. 6 C S Coo Soollu n nff o uttiio o Te orrm n m n Te ssttii aanc n n ngg cee eTOM Business Process Framework Page 5Chapter 1- eTOM Business Process Framework Introduction Purpose of the Business Process Framework Traditionally in the telecommunications industry, service providers delivered end-toend services to their customers. As such, the entire value chain was controlled by a single enterprise, if necessary via interconnection arrangements with other service providers. However in a liberalized marketplace, service providers are having to respond both to the customer’s increased demands for superior customer service and to stiffer competition. They have therefore been expanding their markets beyond their self-contained boundaries and broadening their business relationships.Service Providers face very different regulatory environments and their business strategies and approaches to competition are quite distinct, nevertheless they share several common characteristics: Heavily dependent upon effective management of information and communications networks to stay competitive Adopting a service management approach to the way they run their business and their networks Moving to more of an end-to-end Process Management approach developed from the customer’s point of v iew Automating their Customer Care, Service and Network Management Processes Need to integrate new OSSs with legacy systems Focusing on data services offerings and Focusing on total service performance, including customer satisfaction Integrating with current technology (e. g. SDH/SONET and ATM) and new technologies (e. g. , IP, DWDM) Emphasizing more of a â€Å"buy† rather than â€Å"build† approach that integrates systems from multiple suppliers Some Service Providers choose to operate their own network and/or information technology infrastructure, while others choose to outsource this segment of their business.The effective exploitation of this information technology and network infrastructure, whether directly operated or outsourced, is an integral part of the service delivery chain and directly influences the service quality and cost perceived by the end customer. Service Providers will need to become skilled at assessing outsourcing opportunities whether in infor mation technology and/or network infrastructure areas or other areas and then, be skilled at integrating and managing any outsourcing arrangements. ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 6 eTOM Business Process Framework To meet both existing and new demands, Service providers still urgently require wellautomated operations processes whether they are incumbent providers or new entrants, and whether communications service providers, application service providers, Internet service providers, etc. Some service roviders are struggling with high growth from a start-up phase, others with the commoditization of key cash-cow services, and yet others with the move from a manual-intensive, inconsistent, inflexible environment to one that provides significant improvement in customer focus, service quality, unit cost, and time to market. Service providers have to pervasively do business electronically with trading partners, suppliers and wholesale and retail customers. For the growing Mobil e/Wireless and IP Services markets, these service providers are focused on quickly provisioning new customers and supporting service quality issues, while continually reducing development and operating costs.. For all service providers, there is an intense drive to introduce both new value-added services and dramatic improvements in customer support.There is also an increasing need for Service Providers to manage the integration required in mergers and acquisitions activity due to the consolidation trend the industry is now experiencing. For the full range of service providers and network operators, the leading focus of the TM Forum’s mission is to enable end-to-end process automation of the business and operations processes that deliver information and communications services. The eTOM is the business process framework for accomplishing this mission. The purpose of the eTOM is to continue to set a vision for the industry to compete successfully through the implementation of business process driven approaches to managing the enterprise.This includes ensuring integration among all vital enterprise support systems concerned with service delivery and support. The focus of the eTOM document is on the business processes used by service providers, the linkages between these processes, the identification of interfaces, and the use of Customer, Service, Resource, Supplier/Partner and other information by multiple processes. Exploitation of information from every corner of the business will be essential to success in the future. In an ebusiness environment, automation to gain productivity enhancement, increased revenue and better customer relationships is vital. Perhaps at no other time has process automation been so critical to success in the marketplace.The over-arching objectives of the eTOM Business Process Framework are to continue to build on TM Forum’s success in establishing: An ‘industry standard’ business process framework. Common d efinitions to describe process elements of a service provider. Agreement on the basic information required to perform each process element within a business activity, and use of this within the overall NGOSS program for business requirements and information model development that can guide industry agreement on contract interfaces, shared data model elements, and supporting system infrastructure and products. A process framework for identifying which processes and interfaces are in most need of integration and automation, and most dependent on industry agreement.This document, the eTOM Business Process Framework and its associated business process modeling, describes for an enterprise the process elements and their relationship that are involved in information and communications services and technologies management. Additionally, the points of interconnection that make up the end-to-end, customer operations process flows for Fulfillment, Assurance, Billing within Operations, and for Strategy, Infrastructure & Product are addressed. GB921v3. 6 ? TeleManagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 7 Note that, although eTOM has been focused on information and communications services and technologies management, this work is also proving to be of interest in other business areas.Service providers need this common framework of processes to enable them to do business efficiently and effectively with other entities and to enable the development and use of third-party software without the need for major customization. In an ebusiness environment, this common understanding of process is critical to managing the more complex business relationships of today’s information and communications services marketplace. eBusiness integration among enterprises seems to be most successful through strong process integration. Recent industry fallout, particularly in relation to dotcoms, does not reduce the pressure for ebusiness automation – it strengthens t he need to capitalize on ebusiness opportunities to be successful.However, the eTOM is not just an ecommerce or ebusiness process framework, it supports traditional business processes with the integration of ebusiness. Define Common Terminology The eTOM document also provides the definition of common terms concerning enterprise processes, sub-processes and the activities performed within each. Common terminology makes it easier for service providers to negotiate with customers, third party suppliers, and other service providers. See Annex B for the definition of eTOM acronyms and terminology. Consensus Tool The TM Forum produced the TOM initially as a consensus tool for discussion and agreement among service providers and network operators.Its broad consensus of support, which has been built on and extended with the eTOM, enables: Focused work to be carried out in TM Forum teams to define detailed business requirements, information agreements, business application contracts and shar ed data model specifications (exchanges between applications or systems) and to review these outputs for consistency Relating business needs to available or required standards A common process view for equipment suppliers, applications builders and integrators to build management systems by combining third party and in-house developments The anticipated result is that the products purchased by service providers and network operators for business and operational management of their networks, information technologies and services will integrate better into their environment, enabling the cost benefits of end-to-end automation. Furthermore, a common industry view on processes and information facilitates operator-to-operator and operator-to-supplier process interconnection, which is essential for rapid service provisioning and problem handling in a competitive global environment.This process interconnection is the key to ebusiness supply chain management in particular. ?TeleManagement F orum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 8 eTOM Business Process Framework What is the eTOM? The eTOM is a business process framework, i. e. a reference framework or model for categorizing all the business activities that a service provider will use. It is NOT a service provider business model. In other words, it does not address the strategic issues or questions of who a service provider’s target customers should be, what market segments should the service provider serve, what are a service provider’s vision, mission, etc. A business process framework is one part of the strategic business model and plan for a service provider.The eTOM can be regarded as a Business Process Framework, rather than a Business Process Model, since its aim is to categorize the process elements business activities so that these can then be combined in many different ways, to implement end-to-end business processes (e. g. fulfillment, assurance, billing) which deliver value for the customer and the service provider. eTOM Release 3. 0 provided a member-approved eTOM Business Process Framework with global agreement from its highest conceptual level to its first working level. This eTOM Release 3. 5 builds on this to take account of real-world experience in applying this work, and to incorporate new detail in process decompositions, flows and business to business interaction.However, eTOM is still developing in areas such as further lower-level process decompositions and flows, and ongoing feedback together with its linkage with the wider NGOSS program, will be used to guide future development priorities. Note that the development of a total process framework is a significant undertaking with process work that will be phased over time based on member process priorities and member resource availability. This is visible in eTOM’s own history, from the original Telecom Operations Map (TOM) that was carried forward into the eTOM and broadened to a total enterprise framework, through s everal generations of detail and refinement, to the current Release. More information on TOM and its links with eTOM are provided in the previous release of this document (GB921 v3. 0).A great many service providers, as well as system integrators, ASPs and vendors, are working already with eTOM. They need an industry standard framework for procuring software and equipment, as well as to interface with other service providers in an increasingly complex network of business relationships. Many service providers have contributed their own process models because they recognize the need to have a broader industry framework that doesn’t just address operations or traditional business processes. GB921v3. 6 ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 9 Customer Strategy, Infrastructure & Product Operations Customer Market, Product & Customer Market, Product and Customer Service ServiceResource Resource (Application, Computing and Network) (Application, Computing an d Network) Supplier/Partner Supplier/Partner Supplier/Partner Suppliers/Partners Enterprise Management Shareholders  ©TeleManagement Forum October, 2001 Employees Other Stakeholders Figure 1. 1: eTOM Business Process Framework—Level 0 Processes Figure 1. 1 shows the highest conceptual view of the eTOM Business Process Framework. This view provides an overall context that differentiates strategy and lifecycle processes from the operations processes in two large groupings, seen as two boxes. It also differentiates the key functional areas in five horizontal layers. In addition, Figure 1. also shows the internal and external entities that interact with the enterprise (as ovals). Figure 1. 2 shows the Level 0 view of Level 1 processes in the eTOM Framework. This view is an overall view of the eTOM processes, but in practice it is the next level – the Level 1 view of Level 2 processes – at which users tend to work, as this detail is needed in analyzing their busine sses. This view is presented later in the document in a series of diagrams examining each area of the eTOM framework. Figure 1. 2 below shows seven vertical process groupings. These are the end-to-end processes that are required to support customers and to manage the business.The focal point of the eTOM (as it was for the TOM) is on the core customer operations processes of Fulfillment, Assurance and Billing (FAB). Operations Support & Readiness is now differentiated from FAB real-time processes to increase the focus on enabling support and automation in FAB, i. e.. on line and immediate support of customers. The Strategy & Commit vertical, as well as the two Lifecycle Management verticals, are also now differentiated because, unlike Operations, they do not directly support the customer, are intrinsically different from the Operations processes and work on different business time cycles. The horizontal process groupings in Figure 1. 2 distinguish functional operations processes and other types of business functional processes, e. g. Marketing versus Selling, Service Development versus Service Configuration, etc. The functional processes on the left (within the Strategy & Commit, Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and Product Lifecycle Management vertical process groupings) enable, support and direct the work in the Operations verticals. ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 10 Customer Strategy, Infrastructure and Product Operations eTOM Business Process Framework Strategy & Commit Infrastructure Lifecycle Mgmt Product Lifecycle Mgmt Operations Support & Readiness Fulfillment Assurance Billing Marketing and Offer Management Customer Relationship Management Service Development & ManagementService Management & Operations Resource Development & Management Resource Management & Operations Supply Chain Development & Management Supplier/Partner Relationship Management Enterprise Management Strategic & Enterprise Planning Brand Management, Market Research & Adv ertising Enterprise Quality Mgmt, Process & IT Planning & Architecture Human Resource s Management Research & Development Acquisistion & Technology Financial & Asset Management  © TeleManagement Forum October, 2001 Stakeholder & External Relations Management Disaster Recovery , Security & Fraud Management Figure 1. 2: eTOM Business Process Framework—Level 1 Processes As can be seen in Figure 1. , eTOM makes the following improvements to the high level TOM Framework: Expands the scope to all enterprise processes. Distinctly identifies Marketing processes due to heightened importance in an ebusiness world. Distinctly identifies Enterprise Management processes, so that everyone in the enterprise is able to identify their critical processes, thereby enabling process framework acceptance across the enterprise. Brings Fulfillment, Assurance and Billing (FAB) onto the high-level framework view to emphasize the customer priority processes as the focus of the enterprise. Defines an Operations Support & Readiness vertical process grouping, applicable for all functional layers, except Enterprise Management. To ntegrate ebusiness and make customer selfmanagement a reality, the enterprise has to understand the processes it needs to enable for direct, and more and more, online customer operations support and customer self-management. Recognizes three enterprise process groupings that are distinctly different from operations processes by identifying the SIP processes, i. e. , Strategy & Commit, Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and Product Lifecycle Management. Recognizes the different cycle times of the strategy and lifecycle management processes and the need to separate these processes from the customer priority operations processes where automation is most critical. This is done by decoupling the Strategy & Commit and the two Lifecycle Management processes from the day-to-day, minute-to-minute cycle times of the customer operations processes. GB921v3. 6 ?TeleMa nagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 11 Moves from a customer care or service orientation to a customer relationship management orientation that emphasizes customer selfmanagement and control, increasing the value customers contribute to the enterprise and the use of information to customize and personalize to the individual customer. It adds more elements to this customer operations functional layer to represent better the selling processes and to integrate marketing fulfillment within Customer Relationship Management. Note that eTOM Customer Relationship Management is very broadly defined and larger in scope than some definitions of CRM.Acknowledges the need to manage resources across technologies, (i. e. , application, computing and network), by integrating the Network and Systems Management functional process into Resource Management & Operations. It also moves the management of IT into this functional layer as opposed to having a separate process grouping. e TOM is More Than One Document It is intended that the eTOM Business Process Framework will become a collection of documents and models. The current view is as follows: This document – the eTOM: The Business Process Framework – is structured as a core document that explains the overall framework approach and all its elements.In addition, two Addenda are associated with the core document: Addendum D provides process descriptions for the eTOM at Level 0, Level 1, Level 2 and selected Level 3 processes Addendum F provides examples of process flows that use the eTOM Business Process Framework and its component process elements to address high-priority business scenarios The eTOM Overview/Executive Summary is a â€Å"single sheet† document that provides an overall view of the eTOM business process framework and highlights key concepts. The eTOM Business Process Framework Model provides a version of the eTOM framework, processes and flows intended for automated process ing by modeling tools, etc.This is intended to be available in several formats: Tool-based (e. g. XML for import into a process analysis environment) Browsable (e. g. HTML) †¢ †¢ Using This Document A service provider’s specific process architecture and organization structure are highly specific and critical aspects of a provider’s competitiveness. The eTOM provides a common view of service provider enterprise process elements or business activities that can easily translate to an individual provider’s internal approaches. The document is not intended to be prescriptive about how the tasks are carried out, how a provider ? TeleManagement Forum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 12 eTOM Business Process Framework r operator is organized, or how the tasks are identified in any one organization. It is also not prescriptive about the sequence of Process Elements that are combined to implement end-to-end business processes. The eTOM provides a starting point for detailed work coordinated through TM Forum that leads to an integrated set of specifications that will provide real benefit to both suppliers and procurers in enhancing industry service provider enterprise management capability. This document is not a specification, in the sense that vendors or operators must comply directly. However, it does represent a standard way of naming, describing and categorizing process elements.It will enable unambiguous communication and facilitate the development of standard solutions and reuse of business processes. It is not intended to incorporate all the detail of eventual process implementation, but is more a guiding reference for the industry. One of the strengths of the eTOM is that it can be adopted at a variety of levels, in whole or in part, depending upon a service provider’s needs. The eTOM can also act as a translator by allowing a service provider to map their distinct processes to the industry framework. As the process examples are develop ed, service providers can use and adapt these examples to their business environment.The eTOM Business Process Framework can be used as a tool for analyzing an organization’s existing processes and for developing new processes. Different processes delivering the same business functionality can be identified, duplication eliminated, gaps revealed, new process design speeded up, and variance reduced. Using eTOM, it is possible to assess the value, cost and performance of individual processes within an organization. Relationships with suppliers and partners can also be facilitated by identifying and categorizing the processes used in interactions with them. In a similar manner, it is possible to identify the all-important customer relationship processes and evaluate whether they are functioning as required to meet customers’ expectations. Intended AudienceThe eTOM aims at a wide audience of professionals in the Information and Communications Services Industry. For experie nced Telecommunications professionals, the eTOM has proven itself to be intuitive; and a strong, common framework of service provider enterprise processes. Through TM Forum Catalyst projects and other work, it has been verified that the eTOM framework has strong application in many applications and throughout many companies. More information on use of eTOM within the industry is available at the TM Forum website www. tmforum. org The eTOM is aimed at service provider and network operator decision makers who need to know and input to he common business process framework used to enable enterprise automation in a cost efficient way. It is also an important framework for specialists across the industry working on business and operations automation. The document or framework supports, and is consistent with, many efforts under way in the industry supporting the need to accelerate business and operations automation in the information and communications services marketplace. GB921v3. 6 ? T eleManagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 13 The eTOM will continue to give providers and suppliers a common framework for discussing complex business needs in a complex industry with complex technologies.For both service providers and network operators additional complexities arise from: Moving away from developing their own business and operations systems software, to a more procurement and systems integration approach. New business relationships between service providers and network operators The creation of new business relationships and the move away from developing internally are a reaction to market forces. These market forces require service providers and network operators to increase the range of services they offer, reduce time to market for new services, increase speed of service, as well as to drive down systems and operational costs.The eTOM is also aimed at service provider and network operator employees involved in business process re-engineering, operations, procurement and other activities for: Understanding the common business process framework being used to drive integration and automation Getting involved in providing processes, inputs, priorities and requirements The eTOM Business Process Framework is also aimed at designers and integrators of business and operational management systems software and equipment suppliers. They can benefit from understanding how management processes and applications need to work together to deliver business benefit to service providers and network operators.An equally important and related audience is suppliers of management applications, management systems, and networking equipment, who need to understand the deployment environment for their products and solutions. The eTOM Business Process Framework provides a common framework useful in supporting the significant amount of merger and acquisition activity. Common process understanding and a common process framework can greatly improve int egration performance for mergers and acquisitions. eTOM is applicable for an established service provider or a new entrant, ‘green field’ provider. It is important to note that not all areas defined in the eTOM are necessarily used by all providers.As mentioned earlier, the framework is flexible, so that the process elements the specific service providers require can be selected on a modular basis and at the appropriate level of detail for their needs. Benefits of Using eTOM eTOM makes available a standard structure, terminology and classification scheme for describing business processes and their constituent building blocks eTOM supplies a foundation for applying enterprise-wide discipline to the development of business processes eTOM provides a basis for understanding and managing portfolios of IT applications in terms of business process requirements ? TeleManagement Forum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 14 eTOM Business Process FrameworkUse of the eTOM enables consistent and h igh-quality end-to-end process flows to be created, with opportunities for cost and performance improvement, and for re-use of existing processes and systems Use of the eTOM across the industry will increase the likelihood that off-the-shelf applications will be readily integrated into the enterprise, at a lower cost than custom-built applications GB921v3. 6 ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 15 Chapter 2 – eTOM Business Process Enterprise Framework The main purpose of this Chapter is to provide a formal description of the eTOM Business Process Framework, with two distinct viewpoints: The Internal Viewpoint, which considers the processes that characterize the â€Å"internal behavior† of a Service Provider; The External Viewpoint, which considers the processes necessary for a Service Provider to handle external interactions (e. g. xecute electronic transactions) with Customers, Suppliers and Partners in a Value Chain. In the following sectio ns both of these viewpoints are presented. The Internal Viewpoint follows the structure of former releases of GB921, the External Viewpoint is new material and a general overview is provided. Internal viewpoint The eTOM Business Process Element Enterprise Framework considers the Service Provider’s (SP’s) enterprise, and positions this within its overall business context: i. e. the business interactions and relationships, which allow the SP to carry on its business with other organizations. These wider aspects, together with the implications for an eBusiness and eCommerce world are introduced in Chapter 3.This section introduces the eTOM Business Framework and explains its structure and the significance of each of the process areas within it. It also shows how the eTOM structure is decomposed to lower-level process elements. This explanation is useful for those who decide where and how an Enterprise will use eTOM, and those who may be modifying it for use in their Enter prise. To assist the reader in locating the process area concerned within eTOM, a graphical icon of eTOM, alongside the text, is provided to draw attention to the relevant eTOM area. This is highlighted in red to indicate the focus of the following text or discussion. eTOM Conceptual View The eTOM Business Process Element Enterprise Framework represents the whole of a service provider’s enterprise environment.At the overall conceptual level, eTOM can be viewed as having three major areas of process, as shown in Figure 2. 1. Strategy, Infrastructure & Product – covering planning and lifecycle management Operations – covering the core of operational management Enterprise Management – covering corporate or business support management ? TeleManagement Forum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 16 eTOM Business Process Framework Customer Strategy, Infrastructure & Product Operations Market, Product and Customer Service Resource (Application, Computing and Network) Supplier/Pa rtner Suppliers/Partners Enterprise Management Shareholders Employees Other Stakeholders  © TeleManagement ForumOctober, 2001 Figure 2. : eTOM Business Process Framework Conceptual Structure The Conceptual Structure view provides an overall context that differentiates strategy and lifecycle processes from operations processes in two large process areas, seen as the two large boxes towards the top of the diagram, together with a third area beneath which is concerned with enterprise management. It also differentiates the key functional areas in four horizontal groupings across the two upper process areas. In addition, Figure 2. 1 shows the internal and external entities (as ovals) that interact with the enterprise. eTOM is a structured catalogue (a taxonomy) of process elements, which can be viewed in more and more detail.When viewed in terms of the Horizontal Functional groupings, it follows a strict hierarchy where every element is only associated with or parented to a single elem ent at the next higher hierarchical level. In a taxonomy, any activity must be unique, i. e. it must be listed only once. Figure 2. 1 shows the top level (Level â€Å"0†) Groupings that eTOM is decomposed into. Because the purpose of the eTOM framework is to help SPs to manage their end-toend Business processes, the eTOM enhances the TOM practice of showing how process elements have a strong association with one (or several) end-to-end business processes (e. g. Fulfillment, Assurance, Billing, Product Development etc. which are introduced later in this Chapter). These Vertical End-To-End groupings are essentially overlays onto the hierarchical top-level horizontal groupings, because in a hierarchical taxonomy an element cannot be associated with or parented to more than one element at the next higher level. Because eTOM was developed to help build and implement the process elements for a Service Provider, it was decided from the start that the primary top-level hierarchy of p rocess elements would be the functional (horizontal) groupings, rather than the endto-end process (vertical) groupings. GB921v3. 6 ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 17To understand the eTOM Business Process Framework, each process area is analyzed and decomposed into further groupings and processes. For each level of analysis or decomposition, the process area, grouping or process element itself is presented with a brief, summary-level description. At this highest level, the three basic process areas are outlined below. The Operations Process Area is the heart of eTOM. It includes all operations processes that support the customer operations and management, as well as those that enable direct customer operations with the customer. These processes include both day-to-day and operations support and readiness processes.The eTOM view of Operations also includes sales management and supplier/partner relationship management. The Strategy, Infrastructure & Pro duct Process Area includes processes that develop strategies and commitment to them within the enterprise, that plan, develop and manage infrastructures and products, and that develop and manage the Supply Chain. In the eTOM, infrastructure refers to more than just the IT and resource infrastructure that supports products and services. It includes the infrastructure required to support functional processes, e. g. , Customer Relationship Management (CRM). These processes direct and enable the Operations processes.The Enterprise Management Process Area includes those basic business processes that are required to run any large business. These generic processes focus on both the setting and achieving of strategic corporate goals and objectives, as well as providing those support services that are required throughout an Enterprise. These processes are sometimes considered to be the corporate functions and/or processes. e. g. , Financial Management, Human Resources Management processes, e tc†¦ Since Enterprise Management processes are aimed at general support within the Enterprise, they may interface as needed with almost every other process in the Enterprise, be they operational, strategy, infrastructure or product processes.The conceptual view of the eTOM Business Process Framework addresses both the major process areas as above and, just as importantly, the supporting functional process groupings, depicted as horizontal groupings. The functional groupings reflect the major expertise and focus required to pursue the business. The four functional groupings are described below: The Market, Product and Customer processes include those dealing with sales and channel management, marketing management, and product and offer management, as well as Customer Relationship Management and ordering, problem handling, SLA Management and billing. The Service processes include those dealing with service development and configuration, service problem management, quality analysi s, and rating. The Resource processes include those dealing with development nd management of the enterprise's infrastructure, whether related to products and services, or to supporting the enterprise itself. The Supplier/Partner processes include those dealing with the enterprise’s interaction with its suppliers and partners. This involves both processes that manage the Supply Chain that underpins product and infrastructure, as well as those that support the Operations interface with its suppliers and partners. ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 18 eTOM Business Process Framework Additionally, in the diagram (Figure 2. 1), the major entities with which the enterprise interacts are shown. These are: Customers, to whom service is provided by means of the products sold by the enterprise: the focus of the business!Suppliers, who provides products or resources, bought and used by the enterprise directly or indirectly to support its business Partners, with whom the enterpr ise co-operates in a shared area of business Employees, who work for the enterprise to pursue its business goals Shareholders, who have invested in the enterprise and thus own stock Stakeholders, who have a commitment to the enterprise other than through stock ownership. eTOM CEO Level View Below the conceptual level, the eTOM Business Process Framework is decomposed into a set of process element groupings, which provide a first level of detail at which the entire enterprise can be viewed. These process groupings are considered the CEO level view, in that the performance of these processes determines the success of the enterprise. The eTOM Business Process Framework is defined as generically as possible, so that it is independent of organization, technology and service. The eTOM is basically intuitive, business driven and customer focused. To reflect the way usinesses look at their processes, the eTOM supports two different perspectives on the grouping of the detailed process elemen ts: Horizontal process groupings, which represent a view of functionallyrelated processes within the business, such as those involved in managing contact with the customer or in managing the supply chain. This structuring by functional groupings is useful to those who are responsible for creating the capability that enables the processes. The IT teams will look at groups of IT functions which tend to be implemented together e. g. the front-of-house applications in the Customer Grouping, back-of-house applications which focus on managing information about the services sold to customers, the network management applications which focus on the technology which delivers the services.For processes delivered by people there is a similar separation of workgroups – the front-of-house workgroups in the Customer Grouping, back-of-house workgroups which focus on managing information about the services sold to customers, the network management workgroups which focus on the technology whic h delivers the services. Vertical process groupings, which represent a view of end-to-end processes within the business, such as those involved in the overall billing flows to customers. This end-to-end view is important to those people who are responsible for changing, operating and managing the end-to-end processes. These people are more interested in the outcomes of the process and how they support customer need rather than worrying about the IT or the workgroups that need to work together to deliver the result. GB921v3. 6 ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 19 The overlay of the Functional (horizontal) groupings of process elements and the endto-end process (vertical) groupings forms the inherent matrix structure of eTOM. This matrix structure is the core of one of the innovations and fundamental benefits of eTOM – it offers for the first time a standard language and structure for the process elements that are understood and used by both the pe ople specifying and operating the end-to-end business, as well as those people who are responsible for creating the capability that enables the processes (whether automated by IT or implemented manually by workgroups).The integration of all these processes provides the enterprise-level process framework for the information and communications service provider. This is the ‘Level 0’ view of the enterprise and shows the vertical and horizontal process groupings that are the decompositions of the process areas introduced above. These groupings are ‘Level 1’ process groupings in the parlance of the eTOM business process model, e. g. Customer Relationship Management, Fulfillment. The Level 0 view, which reveals the Level 1 process detail, is shown in Figure 2. 2. As process decomposition proceeds, each level is decomposed into a set of constituent process elements at the level below.Thus, Level 0 is decomposed into Level 1 processes, Level 1 into Level 2,and so o n. The Enterprise Level 0 view decomposes into seven Vertical (or â€Å"end-to-end†) Level 1 process groupings as well as eight Horizontal (or â€Å"functional†) Level 1 process groupings in four layers. These Vertical and Horizontal process groupings represent alternative views relevant to different concerns on the way that processes should be associated. Note that we will see that these alternatives have been selected to yield a single, common view of the Level 2 processes defined at the next level of decomposition, and hence do not represent a divergence in the modeling.In addition, there are eight additional enabling and support Level 1 process groupings within Enterprise Management. This full view of the Level 1 processes is shown in Figure 2. 2. Customer Strategy, Infrastructure and Product Operations Strategy ; Commit Infrastructure Lifecycle Mgmt Product Lifecycle Mgmt Operations Support ; Readiness Fulfillment Assurance Billing Marketing and Offer Management C ustomer Relationship Management Service Development ; Management Service Management ; Operations Resource Development ; Management Resource Management ; Operations Supply Chain Development ; Management Supplier/Partner Relationship Management Enterprise Management Strategic ; Enterprise PlanningBrand Management, Market Research ; Advertising Enterprise Quality Mgmt, Process R esea rch ; D evelo p m en t ; IT Planning ; Architecture ; T ech n o lo g y A cq u isistio n Human Resources Management Disaster Recovery, Security ; Fraud Management Financial ; Asset Management  © TeleManagement Forum October, 2001 Stakeholder ; External Relations Management Figure 2. 2: eTOM Level 0 View of Level 1 Process Groupings ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 20 eTOM Business Process Framework eTOM Operations Processes To be useful to a Service Provider, the eTOM Process Element Framework must help the SP to develop and operate their business processes.This sections shows how the matrix str ucture of eTOM offers for the first time a standard language and structure for the process elements that are understood and used by both the people specifying and operating the end-to-end business, as well as those people who are responsible for creating the capability that enables the processes (whether automated by IT or implemented manually by workgroups). â€Å"OPS† Vertical Process Groupings The Operations (OPS) process area contains the direct operations vertical process groupings of Fulfillment, Assurance ; Billing, together with the Operations Support ; Readiness process grouping (see Figure 2. 3). The â€Å"FAB† processes are sometimes referred to as Customer Operations processes. Customer Operations Operations Support and Readiness Fulfillment Assurance Billing Figure 2. : eTOM OPS Vertical Process Groupings The TOM was focused only on the direct customer processes represented by FAB. However, FAB processes were not on the TOM framework map, they were rather an overlay. In an ebusiness world, the focus of the enterprise must be enabling and supporting these processes as the highest priority. Therefore, in the eTOM, Fulfillment, Assurance ; Billing are an integrated part of the overall framework. Fulfillment: this process grouping is responsible for providing customers with their requested products in a timely and correct manner. It translates the customer's business or personal need into a solution, which can be delivered using the specific products in the enterprise’s portfolio.This process informs the customers of the status of their purchase order, ensures completion on time, as well as a delighted customer. Assurance: this process grouping is responsible for the execution of proactive and reactive maintenance activities to ensure that services provided to customers are continuously available and to SLA or QoS performance levels. It performs continuous resource status and performance monitoring to proactively detect possible f ailures. It collects performance data and analyzes them to identify potential problems and resolve them without impact to the customer. This process manages the SLAs and reports service performance to the customer.It receives trouble reports from the customer, informs the customer of the trouble status, and ensures restoration and repair, as well as a delighted customer. GB921v3. 6 ? TeleManagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 21 Billing: this process grouping is responsible for the production of timely and accurate bills, for providing pre-bill use information and billing to customers, for processing their payments, and performing payment collections. In addition, it handles customer inquiries about bills, provides billing inquiry status and is responsible for resolving billing problems to the customer's satisfaction in a timely manner. This process grouping also supports prepayment for services.For a high-level view of how the eTOM Process Elements can be used t o create Fulfillment, Assurance ; Billing process flows, please see document GB921 v3. 5 Addendum â€Å"f†, Process Flow Examples. In addition to these FAB process groupings, the OPS process area of the eTOM Framework contains a new, fourth vertical process grouping: Operations Support ; Readiness (see Figure 2. 3). Operations Support ; Readiness: this process grouping is responsible for support to the â€Å"FAB† processes, and for ensuring operational readiness in the fulfillment, assurance and billing areas. In general, the processes are concerned with activities that are less â€Å"real-time† than those in FAB, and which are typically concerned less with individual customers and services and more with groups of these.They reflect a need in some enterprises to divide their processes between the immediate customer-facing and real-time operations of FAB and other Operations processes which act as a â€Å"second-line† in carrying out the operational suppor t tasks. Not all enterprises will choose to employ this split, or to position the division in exactly the same place, so it is recognized that in applying the eTOM Business Framework in particular scenarios, the processes in Operations Support ; Readiness and in FAB may be merged for day-today operation. Nevertheless, it is felt important to acknowledge this separation to reflect a real-world division that is present or emerging in many enterprises.The separation, definition and execution of the Operations Support ; Readiness processes can be critical in taking advantage of ebusiness opportunities, and is particularly important for successful implementation of Customer Self Management. â€Å"OPS† Horizontal Process Groupings In the OPS process area of the eTOM Framework, there are four OPS functional process groupings that support the operations processes discussed above, and also the management of operations to support customer, service, resource and supplier/partner interac tions (see Figure 2. 4). The original TOM Process Framework used the ITU-T TMN Logical Business, Service, and Network Layers to organize the core business processes. This facilitated mapping of the Management Functions defined in TMN, to the TOM processes.As the eTOM Business Process Framework is an evolution of the TOM Process Framework and because the TMN layering approach is still relevant, the TMN Logical Layers continue to be loosely coupled to the functional process groupings. The TM Forum is working with ITU-T to harmonize the eTOM and TMN models. See reference 3 for further information on ITU-T TMN. ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 GB921v3. 6 Page 22 eTOM Business Process Framework Cu stome r Oper ati ons C usto mer R el ation ship Manag emen t Serv ice Man ag ement ; Op eration s R eso urce Man ag em ent ; Op erat ion s (Applicati on, C om puting a nd N etwor k) Sup plier/Partn er R elat ionsh ip Man ag em en t Figure 2. : eTOM OPS Functional Process Groupings Customer Relationsh ip Management (CRM): this process grouping considers the fundamental knowledge of customers needs and includes all functionalities necessary for the acquisition, enhancement and retention of a relationship with a customer. It is about customer service and support, whether storefront, telephone, web or field service. It is also about retention management, cross-selling, up-selling and direct marketing for the purpose of selling to customers. CRM also includes the collection of customer information and its application to personalize, customize and integrate delivery of service to a customer, as well as to identify opportunities for increasing the value of the customer to the enterprise.CRM applies to both conventional retail customer interactions, as well as to wholesale interactions, such as when an enterprise is selling to another enterprise that is acting as the ‘retailer’. The introduction of CRM is a key feature of eTOM over TOM. At the highest, most general level, t he TOM Business Process Framework included two process groupings to manage relations with customers, â€Å"Customer Interface Management† and â€Å"Customer Care†. In the TOM, it is explicitly mentioned that Customer Interface Management may effectively be a distinct process within Customer Care or may be performed as part of the lower level Customer Care processes. However, eTOM advances the TOM in several key ways: It expands Customer Care to Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which is management approach to supporting and interacting with customers, that enables enterprises to identify, attract and increase retention of profitable customers. CRM focuses on collection and application of customer data and managing relationships with customers to improve customer retention and customer value contribution to the enterprise. CRM is more than Customer Care or Customer Interface Management, it is the integration of customer acquisition, enhancement and retention throu gh managing the customer relationship over time. For eTOM, CRM also represents the integration of Sales and Service processes and ensuring a consistent customer interface across all CRM functional processes. GB921v3. 6 ?TeleManagement Forum 2003 eTOM Business Process Framework Page 23 eTOM integrates Customer Interface Management for Fulfillment, Assurance ; Billing across all the CRM functional processes and with customer processes. Customer Interface Management represents any type of contact, e. g. , phone, email, face-to-face, etc. It expects an integration and coordination across these different interface types, to provide a consistent interface and highlights the requirement for customer process control and customer self management. eTOM also encourages the design of solutions so that systems interfaces used within the enterprise are the same as those used by customers.TOM CRM processes include an expansion of TOM Customer Care processes to: †¢ Focus on customer retention †¢ †¢ †¢ Improve enterprise process exception customer response Integrate marketing fulfillment execution Better represent the billing function at the customer level and the need to assure revenue. Service Management ; Operations (SM;O): this process grouping focuses on the knowledge of services (Access, Connectivity, Content, etc. ) and includes all functionalities necessary for the management and operations of communications and information services required by or proposed to customers. The focus is on service delivery and management as opposed to the management of the underlying network and information technology. Some of the

Critical literature review of building successful corporate blogs Essay

There are a limited number of studies investigating the elements that characterize a successful blog. In their study, Cass, Munroe and Turcotte (2005) addressed several issues regarding the creation of successful blogs by conducting an online survey and six case studies. The following are the questions they attempted to answer: â€Å"Why would a company want to start blogging? What makes a blog successful? And how can companies use this type of website to facilitate positive business growth? † (Cass, Munroe, & Turcotte, 2005). Their survey consists of 32 questions addressing the questions previously mentioned. A total of 97 people took the survey, 75 of which are bloggers and 22 are non-bloggers, 77% of which are male and 23% are female. However, they only posted results from respondents who claim that they ran a corporate blog. Backbone Media, Inc. developed the survey page consisting of 32 questions addressing the questions previously mentioned and interviewed 6 coporate corporate blogger. Majority of the bloggers are between the ages 30 and 39. Fifty-two percent of the respondents achieved an undergraduate level and 48% achieved graduate level indicating that most of them are highly educated. â€Å"The positions of the bloggers include president (45%), head of department (33%), and staff (22%). Seventy-three percent of the bloggers come from companies with 1-100 companies while 19% come from companies with over 500 employees. † (Cass, Munroe, & Turcotte, 2005). These percentages of bloggers indicate that small, medium and large companies have been influenced by the blogging innovation. Results of the survey indicated that respondents believe that corporate blogs provide an array of benefits such as â€Å"quick publishing, thought leadership, building community, sales and online public relations. † (Cass, Munroe, & Turcotte, 2005). Results show that bloggers immediately notice that their ideas are published quickly but the biggest benefit for them is thought leadership and sharing of ideas. The interviews and the case studies provided guidelines for other companies in creating a successful corporate blog. According to Cass et. al. , since thought leadership is thought to be the biggest benefit provided by corporate blogs, it is best to discuss thought leadership to build a successful blog community. They also suggest that companies should encourage their bloggers to write more about their products and their services. Also, Cass et. al. (2005) emphasize that â€Å"new ideas should come from both the blogger and from customers†. A more recent study addressing the issue on creating a successful corporate blog is Cass and Carl’s (2006) Blogging Success Study. In their study, they tried to select and define the elements that constitute a successful corporate blog. They interviewed 20 successful corporate bloggers from different size of firms and industries. (Cass & Carl, 2006). They also conducted case studies explaining how these twenty corporate bloggers achieved success. As a solution, these are 5 main factors contribute to a successful corporate blog: â€Å"culture, transparency, time, dialogue, and entertaining writing style and personalization. † (Cass & Carl, 2006). In the case of Sony Playstation blogspot, wherein the blogspot which was not really that good in terms of content, and wherein, there were many bloggers yet there were only a few of them whose writings really matter and much of the content is somewhat personal or is considered as â€Å"noise†. The corporation acted with fluidity and immediately controlled the blogspot, by not accepting topics which the company has already addressed. In an article by Mark White (2007) a blog consultant in corporate blogging, he stresses some of the important points for a corporation to consider in managing good blogspots. He cites listening, clarity and openness, forward thinking, developing, and giving options as some points which a corporation has to live up to in order to have a good corporate blogspot. To maintain manageability of some corporate blogspots, it is important that the corporate executives themselves read what is written on the blogs and innovate and manage the blogs which are presented to them. On a separate topic, White (2007) also discussed the ideal way of managing blogs. White suggests that as a corporate blogger, one must publish on a regular basis, stay on planned topics, always keep readers in mind, make blog titles attractive in all senses, cite references of other cites, make sure that spelling and grammar are well, check back planning documents, reference foundation articles, and encourage follow ups to comments. Building corporate blogs of course takes time and a lot of effort and patience, but as long as corporate executives are managing the blogspace efficiently, and there is control over the content as well as the topics within the blogs, the blogspace would mean a lot for the corporations as benefits would definitely hit the ceiling. Corporate blogs can be helpful in making others see what its culture really by being transparent with their motives behind blogging. It must be open in engaging dialogues with customers. Blogs must also contain personal connection between the writer and the reader. Because of these considerations, setting up corporate blogs requires a lot of time. Thus, companies must be able to identify the person or persons who will be able to devote enough time in setting up blogs that can be trusted not only by customers but by their co-workers as well. These studies help to determine how bloggers perceive the notion of corporate blogging. Moreover, knowing the history of the development of blogging will help in understanding how and why the public accepted blogging as a kind of new and advantageous innovation. However, empirical research has not yet been undertaken regarding this matter. Thus, the present study will give an empirical research on the perception of bloggers on corporate blogging to determine their rate of acceptance on corporate blogging.

Free sample - The Wal-Mart Organization. translation missing

The Wal-Mart Organization. The Wal-Mart OrganizationTraining evaluation and its effectiveness There are many types of training evaluation used but the Wal-Mart Organization adopted the input evaluation method because it was relevant to the organization. Input evaluation is used to assess all the elements associated with the training based on the selection of trainers, trainees, materials, venue, curriculum plan, and the cost (Tessaring Descy, 2004). The training evaluation method is effective because it met all what I expected from the training. The training was helpful because I learnt many new things, which will assist me, improve on my performance in the organization. According to the participant’s views and comments after the training, they were satisfied that the training was helpful. Most of them recommended that such training sessions should be organized regularly to equip them with new skills and knowledge (Tessaring Descy, 2004). The effectiveness of the training evaluation would be determined by the on how the participants answer the question and how they will conduct themselves at the work place. Evaluation design Evaluation design is a conceptual framework or a logical model that is used to come up with a conclusion (Tessaring Descy, 2004). The following the evaluation design I adopted. Who are the primary audience? The primary audience in this case is the employees of the Wal-Mart Organization. What is the primary purpose? The main aim or the purpose is to train them on how evaluation is done and its importance to them and to the organization in general. What is the best method of collecting information? Using questionnaires was the most appropriate method because it will be detailed and the respondents will be free to provide the required information in accordance to the questions asked and the information needed. How will the information be analyzed? The information will be analyzed based on the questions and information in the questionnaires. For example, graphs may be used if it contains a lot of figures and a summary if it contains only some comments and explanations (Tessaring Descy, 2004). How will the information be reported? It can be in form of a written report or a presentation is done to the employees if there is enough time and all employees will be available during presentation. Since I will the one reporting the findings, I would prefer to do a presentation so that all employees can participate fully and ask questions for further clarification (Tessaring Descy, 2004). It is important for an organization to have a clear evaluation design because this is the only way of providing a solution to the problems affecting the organization and the employees as well. Lack of clear understanding by the employees of what evaluation is, may lead to problems when the results are out on an individual employee on his or her performance (Tessaring Descy, 2004). The hypothetical evaluation To that, the evaluation was effective; the audience who are the employees of Wal-Mart Organization had a session of debriefing, warm up, presentation and the time to cover the presentation materials (Tessaring Descy, 2004). I found time to ask the employees and all those who attended the training on what they gained from the whole session. The employee’s perspective towards the organization changed for the good because of how the employees conducted themselves at the work place. All the sessions were fully utilized by trainees because it was evidenced even when they were on break, there were discussions, and posing many questions on various issues (Tessaring Descy, 2004). From the period allocated for each activity, many issues were discussed. Though it has not been practically proved, I believe that, employees will apply what they learnt in the training session at the organization. Reference: Tessaring, M. and Descy, P. (2004). The foundations of evaluation and impact research: third  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   report on vocational training research in Europe: background report. Luxembourg:  Ã‚   Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

How to Create Content for Google’s E-A-T Algorithm and Medic Update

How to Create Content for Google’s E-A-T Algorithm and Medic Update You already know that content marketing is a tough nut to crackeven if you’ve got the privilege of working with a team of people with a knack for words. There’s blog posts everywhere you turn in your Google Drive, research papers littering your desk, and website content planned for the next six months. But even after all that prep,  it’s still possible to sink to the bottom of Google’s search results. Just 9% of content  gets some form of organic traffic. And it’s pretty easy to fall into the 91% that doesn’tespecially when over 3 million blog posts  are being published every day. Pretty disheartening, right? It doesn’t have to be that way forever. In fact, you could earn pride of place in Google’s SERPs by focusing on one of their new algorithm features: The E-A-T update. Here’s how you can get in on the action. How to Create Content for Google’s E-A-T Algorithm Update by @elisedopson via @ Where It All Started: The â€Å"Medic† Update On Aug. 1, 2018, Google rolled out a new core algorithm update. That’s not groundbreaking newsthey release some kind of update several times a year, as explained by the internet gods themselves: As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded.... - Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 12, 2018 But this one? It was pretty spectacular. And I don’t just mean the sheer size of itthe effects were devastating for some websites. Huge sites like LiveStrong, The Kitchn and Men’s Health lost thousands of organic visitors  overnight: I think a 50%+ drop in organic traffic is significant enough to call this update a pretty big deal. But if you had your spy goggles on while sieving through that data, you might’ve noticed a trend with the sites that took a hit. Data collected by Search Engine Round Table  found 41% of all sites affected by the update were in the healthcare nichehence why you might’ve heard the algorithm named the â€Å"medic update†. That’s not to say site owners who don’t fall into the healthcare category are safe though. In fact, eCommerce, business, technology and finance took a sizeable dent of the disaster share, too: E-A-T Guidelines, Explained If I’ve scared your socks off, I apologize. But the entire point of me talking about this is to show you how you don’t have to slip to the bottom of page 50 at the mercy of the medic update. In fact, you can use one of their revised ranking factors to your advantage with the content you’re creating. Part of the medic update consisted of Google’s guidelines to â€Å"create great content†. Here’s Google’s Public Search Liason, Danny Sullivan, explaining exactly that: We tell lots of things to do. Improve site speed. Consider secure. Etc. But that's not what this update was about. It's broad. And respectfully, I think telling people there's no particular thing to "fix" is indeed helpful. It means, hopefully, they think more broadly... - Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) August 1, 2018 Not really helpful, right? Especially if you’re already creating great content. (Which, spoiler alert: You should be.) But an interesting part of that whitepaper was Google’s focus on E-A-T content. Those guidelines refer to how Google measures the quality of a page. It stands for: Expertise: How knowledgeable is the site owner on the subject matter? Authoritativeness: How credible is the website publishing this content? Trustworthiness: How trustworthy is the website publishing this? Google’s aim has always, and will always, be to show the best, highest-quality results for any search term you could think of. Searchers want to see the best content that satisfies our user intent. If that’s to view information, you’ve got no chance of ranking highly if you’re not factoring E-A-T guidelines into your content marketing strategy. Recommended Reading: The Most Massive SEO Copywriting Guide That Will Make Your Traffic Soar How to Create E-A-T Rich Content Ready to make a dent in the SERPs and start creating content that Google (and your audience) love? Here are the four sections you really need to focus on: 1. Optimize Author Bio and â€Å"About† Pages Let’s start by focusing on the â€Å"E† section of this new algorithm update: Expertise. You need to be showing that everyone contributing to your website is an expert on the topic at handwhether that’s B2B content marketing or dog walking. Why? Because going back to Google’s aim, they want to give searchers the highest quality information. Let’s use an example. If you’re searching for information on the best time to post on social media, which of these would you be more satisfied with? A site ran by a budget social media agency. A site ran by a social media expert, who’s also a keynote speaker and has 10,000+ Twitter followers. I’ll bet you pick option is B. That’d be Google’s preference, too, purely because they’re more trustworthy and have more expertise than option A. The easiest way to showcase your expertise is to optimize two key pages on your website: Author Bio Pages You already know that many CMS create pages, such as author bio pages, automatically. I’m not here to teach you how to suck eggs. But you might not realize you’re able to edit these automatically-generated author pages, and build on the expertise section of Google’s E-A-T guidelineswhile maximising your search visibility. Author bios are a great place to start because Google’s quality guidelines  say: â€Å"Websites or pages without any beneficial purpose, including pages that are created with no attempt to help users, or pages that potentially spread hate, cause harm, or misinform or deceive users, should receive the Lowest rating.† So, for each person with an author page on your website, ask yourself: Are they social influencers? Do they run popular blogs? Have they won awards? Have they spoken at industry conferences? Have they worked with/written for prestigious companies? If you can answer â€Å"yes† to either one, share the details in their author bio pageor ask contributing writers to craft their own professional bio  before you publish their content. Here’s a fantastic example on Search Engine Journal: Along with setting herself apart from other contributors, Julia’s bio shows she’s an expert in her industry. She runs an almost 100-person strong team, served thousands of clients, been named as a top 30 content marketer, written a book, hosted a podcast, and published a course. Pretty impressive, right? Since author bio pages that rarely offer any value, your target audience see content that’s published by someone with experience, knowledge and expertise (like Julia) when you’re optimizing them. Show them you’ve got it on offer! Recommended Reading: Your Ultimate Content Marketer's Guide to Keyword Research About Pages Take the â€Å"show your expertise† game a step further by optimizing the ‘about’ page of your website. This isn’t person-specific; it’s a full rundown of your company and lets your audience get to know the people behind the brand. You could answer questions like: What experts are on your team? Have you won (or been nominated for) awards for your work? Why should someone pick your business over a competitor? Just take a peek at this infographic from the About page on Avalaunch Media’s site  for inspiration: 102 years of digital marketing experience is pretty impressiveas is the long list of logos of sites they’ve been featured in, and the number of events their team have spoken at. Fancy putting this infographic-style About page into action for your own site? Remember to add some supporting text. Google isn’t smart enough to understand images (yet), so make sure you’re giving their search engine spiders  text they can read and rank. Recommended Reading: SEO Content Strategy: How to Make Your Traffic Soar by 594% 2. Purge (and Redirect) Poorly-Performing Content If you’re creating content on a consistent basis, you might think you’re acing this whole â€Å"content marketing† thing. Truth is: You’re only acing it if the content you’re pushing is getting resultswhether that’s direct traffic, social shares, or conversions. If your content isn’t getting any of that, it’s hindering you, not helping you. The E-A-T algorithm means site owners need to create a site-wide content plan with high-performing content. How can you an expert in your industry if 90% of your content doesn’t perform well? Enter: Content pruning. A fancy word for removing your old content, and redirecting usersand Google spidersto something better. Jimmy Daly, Content Manager at Animalz, told me how QuickBooks pruned their poorly-performing content  and grew search traffic by 44% year-on-year: â€Å"QuickBooks SEO lead Will Waggoner merged pageview data with conversion data to help him decide which pages to prune. He made sure to ignore new content that hadn't been around long enough to rank or assist in conversions. He generated a list of pages that received less than 100 pageviews in the last six months and had not assisted in any conversions. Then, he made a plan for each URL. Some would be redirected to an article on a similar topic and some would be redirected to the blog home page. Lastly, Will confirmed that the sitemap would update automatically. Once confirmed, he put the redirects in place. Traffic was up 20% in a few weeks. By the time peak season rolled around, QuickBooks' content was getting 44% more traffic than the previous year. Will points out that removing content doesn't guarantee increased traffic. He recommends improving navigation to make content more accessible and refreshing old content first. Each piece of content represents a significant investment of time and money- delete it only when you've exhausted other options.† Fancy following Will’s strategy? Here’s a quick summary of what you need to do to meet Google’s E-A-T algorithm: Identify poorly-performing pages with 100 page views in the past six months or pages that don’t generate conversions. (Use Google Analytics’ conversion paths  for this.) Improve those pages, or delete them. If redirected, redirect the old URL to the next, most-relevant page. For example: If you’ve deleted a page on content marketing tips, redirect it to a related blog post or your services page. Just like QuickBooks, you’ll see the impact in no timetrust me. 3. Take Control Over User-Generated Content (UGC) Opening your site to guest authors is a scalable way to increase your content output. But if you’re not keeping a close eye on the content being published, you’ve got no chance of catering to those E-A-T guidelines we’re working so hard to meet. It ties back into the point I made about deleting poorly performing content: Poor content will reduce your entire site’s credibilitywhether it was published by your marketing team, or not. Think about it: If you’re opening your site to contributors, you might get a ton of new content being published to your site every day. That’s great right? Not necessarily. Not all content is good content. Contributors might be publishing: Spun content Duplicate content Low-quality content Content that’s optimized for another keyword you’re already targeting elsewhere It’s better to have one strong piece of content, rather than five low-quality ones. That way, both Google and your audience are wowed by one pieceand you’re in with the chance of ranking higher naturally.   But opening your site to contributors, and allowing them to publish their own content, could make that harder. Caveat that by: Not giving contributors permission to publish without being reviewed by you, first. Creating a set of writing guidelines that all contributors must  stick to. does the latter. Just take a look at the â€Å"write for us† page: Notice how only the best writers squeeze through their process and end up having their writing published? (Including me 😇) You want to follow the same ethos and never sacrifice quality for quantity. Google wants to push sites with expertise, knowledge and trust to the top of the ranks. Vet your contributors and if they don’t meet the same E-A-T guidelines, don’t publish their stuff. It’s really that simple! 4. Build Strong Editorial Backlinks Ah, the one word that makes SEOs rejoice: Backlinks. Us content marketers already know these little hyperlinks play a huge role in any SEO strategy, but your content needs to act as a link-building machine if you want to benefit from this algorithm update. Why? Because links prove credibilitythat caters to the T part of the E-A-T algorithm: Trustworthiness. Site owners who’re dishing out backlinks want to point their audience in the way of incredible content. If they point to low-quality sites, it’s their reputation at stakeand their own rankings that will drop. That’s not gonna do them any favors. But site owners who run reputable, powerful websites want to send their audience in the way of great content. Not 500 words of spun content or content stuffed with your keyword in every paragraphhence why you need to create strong content, and build even stronger backlinks to get in Google’s good books. Follow Moz’s 10x framework, or Backlinko’s skyscraper technique, to build that content. Go above and beyond with your knowledge, educating your customers much better that anyone else can. Then once you’ve got a kick-ass piece of content that’s 10x better than your competition, do some outreach to spread the word. You could: Send the URL to other blogs you’ve linked-to (external linking is good for SEO) Ask influencers to take part and get them to share with their followers Build your own promotion network and ask those people to share your content with their network. (Slack is great for this!) Each of those tactics raises the number of eyeballs on your content. More eyeballs = more backlink opportunities. But if you fancy taking this a step further, go out of your way to ask  for backlinks. Several techniques exist for this, including: Broken link building: Identify a 404 error on your target website, and create a resource to replace it with. Send your URL as a replacement. Round-up/resource link building: Search popular round-up/resource pages in your industry, and reach out to the editor asking to get involved. Guest posting: Write another piece of supporting content and place it on a popular website, linking back to your original piece. Infographic link building: Create an infographic to support your content, and attempt to get it published on industry sites with a link to your content as credit. When you’re working through this section, remember that not every backlink is a good backlink. Good backlinks are contextual, and from authoritative sites with good SEO metrics. It’s a waste of time targeting sites with low Domain Authority, for example, since those won’t pass much ranking power through to your site. SEO powerhouses like HuffPost and Forbes, on the other hand, will! Ready to Ace Google’s E-A-T Algorithm? If you’re not focusing on creating content that’s written by experts, authoritative and from a trustworthy site, you’ll have a hard time on your journey to page one. But it’s easy to boost your organic search traffic when you’re creating what Google, and your target audience, are cravingjust like Marie Haynes did: YEAH! Got this incredible email today from a client for whom we did a site review and made a bunch of recommendations. Their main terms were on page 2 and 3. And now they're #2 for their most important keyword. Improved E-A-T, internal linking and much more. pic.twitter.com/Z7NeXVRtd8 - Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) July 27, 2018 Quality content + strong backlinks = better SEO rankings. And whether you’re just about to ramp-up content production or have a ton of existing content to update, the new E-A-T guidelines are going to get you there.